SPE 165028

Experimental Study of Centrifugal Pump Handling Viscous Fluid and TwoPhase Flow
G. M. Paternost, Petrobras, A. C. Bannwart, State University of Campinas, and V. Estevam, Petrobras

Copyright 2013, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Artificial Lift Conference-Americas held in Cartagena, Colombia, 21-22 May 2013.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its
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reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
This paper presents an experimental study about the performance of a centrifugal pump as a function of the liquid
viscosity and intake free gas fraction. The first part evaluates a pump performance map proposed by Tulsa University Artificial
Lift Projects (TUALP) for single-phase flow using dimensionless numbers, which considers the fluid properties, flow rate,
rotational speed and pump head for a generic centrifugal pump. The second part analyses the pump performance parameters
under different liquid viscosities and free gas fractions, proposes a modification in the TUALP procedure based on well-know
dimensionless numbers, and suggests an extension of the analysis to incorporate the effect of the free gas fraction on the pump
performance.
Introduction
The flow within a centrifugal pump rarely follows the idealized model predicted by Euler equations. Among the main
hydraulic losses the frictional and shock losses stand out, the former caused by viscous dissipation within the impeller and
diffuser channels, and the latter due to local misalignment of the fluid velocity relative to the inlet of impeller and diffuser
blades. When the incoming fluid is accompanied by free gas, additional losses related to phase segregation must be taken into
account. There is currently no general model capable of predicting those losses; therefore the importance of experimental
studies is justified.
The pumping of viscous fluids reduces the head and also increases the brake power required by the pump. The
presence of free gas leads to further reduction of the head and efficiency. The degradation caused by the presence of gas spans
from a fluctuation in pressure - a phenomenon known as surging - to a gas locking condition, when the pump generates no
head and becomes economically unfeasible. Both the viscosity and the free gas effects are, evidently, geometry dependent.
Literature Review
Historically, the effects of fluid viscosity and two-phase flow on the performance of a centrifugal pump have been
studied separately because of the complexity of the flow inside the rotating curved channels. The first studies regarding liquidgas flow in pumps originated in the nuclear industry, motivated by a fundamental issue of safety (LOCA Loss of Coolant
Accident). A pioneer article dealing with the influence of gas bubbles in the pump performance was written by Minemura&
Murakami (1974), who identified that the head degradation is caused by a change of the flow pattern inside the impellers.
There are, however, restrictions to apply their results in the petroleum industry: the pumps used in the nuclear industry have
larger diameter, single stage and an axial geometry, whereas in oil wells they are relatively small, radial and with several
stages.
Lea & Bearden (1980) conducted the first experimental study using electrical submersible pumps (ESP) in the oil and
gas industry. They investigated the impact of free gas into two different benches under different conditions, one using air and
water and the other diesel and CO2. They found that the performance of a pump is dependent upon the free gas fraction and the
intake pressure.
Cirilo (1998) investigated the impact of the free gas fraction, intake pressure and rotational speed on the pump
performance. It was observed that the pump capacity to handle free gas increases with higher intake pressure. The author also
found that, given a certain gas percentage, there is a point at which the pump head increases with increasing flow rate. This
point is close to the limit at which surging begins, and no additional stable points can be taken for lower liquid flow rates.
Pessoa (2000) studied the pressure increase in each stage of a centrifugal pump. He found a poor performance at the
first stage, which sometimes produced negative head. This was attributed to the fact that possibly the first stage behaves as a
mixture homogenizer. The following stages, where the performance gradually improves, are indeed responsible for increasing
the pressure of the flow.

SPE 165028

Estevam (2002) built the first prototype for visualization of the flow inside an ESP impeller. Under certain conditions
the author identified the presence of a stationary bubble in the impeller entrance, whose length increased with increasing free
gas fractions, thus limiting the operational efficiency of the pump. The author also presented a correlation to predict the pump
performance under two-phase flow based on the conservation of mass and momentum.
Barrios (2007) analyzed the flow dynamics within a centrifugal pump, building a prototype to visualize the flow
inside the impeller. The author analyzed the flow patterns, bubble behavior and operating conditions that cause surging using a
camera to capture high frequency images.
Gamboa (2008) collected experimental data from both a 22-stage ESP and a laboratory transparent prototype stage,
which allowed visualization of the two-phase flow behavior phenomena in the impellers. These included the effects of fluid
properties (gas density and surface tension) and the formation of a stagnant gas pocket associated with surging.
Trevisan (2009) was the only author that evaluated the head degradation caused by viscosity and two-phase flow
altogether. He modified the centrifugal pump used by Barrios and Gamboa, installing windows at the entrance, exit and inside
the channels of impellers to obtain images of the flow patterns for different gas fractions.
Monte Verde (2011) experimentally determined the effects of rotational speed, gas and liquid flow rates and intake
pressure on the performance of an ESP equipped with an AGH (Advanced Gas Handler), both built horizontally. The author
found that both the speed increase and the intake pressure impact in a similar way, increasing the pump capability to gas
handling. For the operational conditions tested, the AGH was inefficient.
Regarding viscous fluid flow, there are numerous correlations in the literature to predict head, flow rate and pump
efficiency, as the ones proposed by the Hydraulic Institute (1955) and Stepanoff (1957), among others. In 2009, TUALP
proposed dimensionless groups - specific capacity, specific head, specific speed and a parameter involving the fluid properties
to map the pump performance for different viscosities and rotational speeds. The correlations among these groups should be
obtained experimentally for each type of pump. This proposal is experimentally evaluated in the present study.
Test Facilities and Procedure
Fig. 1 shows the experimental facility used, which consisted of a closed circuit for liquid circulation and gas injection
upstream the test pump. A booster pump pumped the fluid from the 1.2 cubic meter separator tank to the test pump, a
vertically installed two-stage volute-type model 65330 made by Imbil Ita. The test pump was driven by a 5 HP motor
controlled by a variable speed drive (VSD). At a constant rotational speed, the liquid flow rate and the flow pressure were
controlled by a globe valve installed at the discharge of the test pump.
For the two-phase flow tests the pressure at the test pump intake was controlled through a VSD connected to the
booster pump motor. Pressurized air passed through a laminar flow element and a choke valve before entering the acrylic tube,
where the flow becomes two-phase.
The liquid coming from the booster flowed through a Coriolis meter and followed to the electric heater, which
increased the temperature and consequently reduced the viscosity of the liquid. The level of heating was controlled through the
power dissipated by the heater. Glycerin was the fluid chosen for the experiments, for which the electric heater allowed a
temperature variation from ambient up to 60 C, resulting viscosities in the 60-500 cP range. However, due to experimental
limitations, the two-phase tests required a lower viscosity which was achieved by adding water to the glycerin in a 6.8% water
fraction ratio, leading to a 25-250 cP viscosity range.
Dimensional Analysis
The dimensionless numbers proposed by TUALP (Solano, 2009) were obtained from the conservation of mass and
momentum equations along with the Euler equation. The relationships between these groups must be obtained experimentally,
since it relies on the geometry of the pump, which is unique to each model. According to the author, knowledge about the
behavior of centrifugal pumps working with viscous fluids will bring significant benefits to the industry, e.g., helping
manufacturers to design more efficient pumps for viscous fluids, increasing productivity and reducing engineering risk.
The proposed dimensionless equations are presented in Eqs. 1 through 4, and the following relationships exist
between them: = f1 (Rn, ) = f2 (Rn, NS) = f3 (, NS).

Specific Head =



.......................................................................................................................... (1)






,






...................................................................................................................... (2)





,



Specific Capacity =

Specific Speed
=

....................................................................................................................................... (3)








Normalized Reynolds =

.................................................................................................................... (4)

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Fig. 1 Experimental facility

Solano considered Nmanuf = 3600 rpm, which refers to the experimental curve provided by the manufacturer (water at
3600 rpm). In this article, it is 806 rpm. The tests were run at a constant specific speed considering four distinct rotational
speeds - 612, 709, 806 and 950 rpm - and different viscosities. The specific head and specific capacity measured were recorded
for each point and plotted together. This is illustrated in Fig. 2 for a specific speed of 656. The points overlap each other and a
nearly linear relationship between the specific head and the specific capacity can be noticed. The exact relationship is not
expected to be linear for low flow rates since all the Ns curves should extrapolate to zero head at zero capacity.

Fig. 2 Pump behavior for different viscosities and rotational speeds

The procedure was repeated for other specific speeds and the results presented the same behavior from Fig. 2, as
shown in Fig. 3. Note that higher speeds present performance closer to the water curve (Rn=1).
This validates the relation = f (, Ns), proposed by Solano, which proves to be an extension of the Stepanoff
correlation. Stepanoff stated that for a certain pump at a constant speed, the head-capacity decreases when the viscosity
increases, in such a way that the specific speed remains constant at the best efficiency point. As verified above, this correlation
is not restricted to the best efficiency point.

SPE 165028

Fig. 3 - Experimental tests at different specific speeds along with water performance curve

It is possible, using a simplified derivation and well-known dimensionless numbers, to achieve the same performance
map. For a given pump design, the head and brake horsepower should be dependent upon discharge, impeller diameter,
rotational speed, fluid density, viscosity, and geometrical characteristic; therefore, the following functional relationships are
valid:
gH = f (q, d, , , ,
,) and
= g (q, d, , , ,
) ......................................................................................... (5)

This is a straightforward application of the Buckingham theorem. For each function in Eq. 5 there are seven
variables and three primary dimensions (Mass, Length and Time), corresponding to the following dimensionless groups:

Head coefficient
=



Capacity coefficient
=

Power coefficient
=

Reynolds rotation number

Geometry parameters

.............................................................................................................................. (7)

............................................................................................................................... (8)



.................................................................................................................................. (6)

............................................................................................................................ (9)

........................................................................................................................................... (10)

The efficiency is already dimensionless and is uniquely related to the other three variables:

( 3 )( 2 2 )

3 5

............................................................................................................. (11)

To simplify the handling of the resulting numbers, the parameter X was defined as the inverse of Reynolds number:



................................................................................................................................................................ (12)

where the kinematic viscosity / is used in centistokes. The other units are used in SI Metric System. The variable X
must be considered whenever viscous fluids are involved. Since the affinity laws do not hold in these cases, the specific head
and specific capacity must depend on this additional variable.
Using the SI variables presented above, the specific speed is a combination of dimensionless numbers that can be
written in a functional form:

SPE 165028

=

5

(
)

............................................................................................................................................... (13)

Neglecting the geometry parameters, since they are manufacturing characteristics of the pump, the following relations
are valid:

=

, =

, =

................................................................................................................... (14)

Fig. 4 presents the results obtained for the proposed variables, showing the same behavior as in Fig. 3.

Ns=402
Ns=518
Ns=656
Ns=854
Water

Fig. 4 Dimensionless map with constant specific speed isolines

To illustrate the map CH=f(CQ, X) some points were plotted separately to permit a clearly visualization. Fig. 5 shows
the results. As it can be noticed, the X variable can be represented by isolines which are similar to the water curve.

Fig. 5 Dimensionless map illustrating the effect of parameter X

Additionally, it is possible to obtain an algebraic representation of the mapping CH=f(CQ, X). This is best done
through the development of a physical model where the relevant phenomena are accounted for. This is done in next section.

SPE 165028

Theoretical Model
Considering the relationships given by Eq.14, including the geometrical coefficients, and extending the analysis to the
brake horsepower and efficiency, it results:

=

=





=

, ,
............................................................................. (15)




=

, ,

=

, ,

............................................................................. (16)

.............................................................................. (17)

Separate analysis of the head and brake horsepower can be developed from basic concepts.

Head-capacity curve analysis

The pressure gain (or head) provided by the pump is defined by

=
 
 .................................................................................................................................... (18)

The Euler head can be written as it follows:

cotg

 =


1

where

d cotg


.

=



.......................................................................... (19)

The dissipative losses are assumed as the sum of frictional and shock losses:


 = 
 + 
 ........................................................................................................................ (20)

The frictional loss is expressed by means of a friction factor, which can also be divided into an inertial term
(turbulent, which dominates at high flow rates) and a viscous term (dominating at low flow rates):


 = ,
,

=

where =






 =





+

=










+

........................................................... (21)

............................................................................................................. (22)

and
= . Therefore:





................................................................. (23)

where expresses the viscous effects at high flow rates and should be considered in the range 0 < < 1. The

dimensionless coefficients

are all positive-defined and geometry dependent.

The shock loss is caused by a misalignment between the velocity vector and the rotor or diffuser blades. This effect
should disappear for q = q* (design flow rate, assumed shockless) and can be expressed in terms of the kinetic energies of the
rotor:


 =

 =

Thus:


 =

1+

1

................................................................................................ (24)

tg

........................................................................................... (25)

........................................................................................................ (26)

Rewriting Eq.18 using Eqs.19, 23 and 26 it provides:







+






1

..................... (27)

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Rearranging the above equation:

= 1

Dividing by

leads to:

or:



=

+


+



+





+








......................................... (28)

........................... (29)

............................................................................................ (30)

It can be noted from Eq. 30 that the viscosity effects disappears at = 0. Losses related to leaks were not included

in the analysis. From the above derivation, the coefficients
are assumed to depend only on the geometry parameters



and are constant for a given pump. These coefficients are expected to be positive except possibly
. The five coefficients and
the exponent can be determined from data regression to fit the experimental head-capacity curves, provided the data cover a
wide range of CQ and X.
Brake horsepower-capacity curve analysis
The brake horsepower can be considered as the sum of
the hydraulic power transferred to the fluid
the power losses caused by the hydraulic fluid in the rotor and diffuser
the losses associated with the friction between the rotor and the surrounding fluid.
Since the sum of the two first corresponds to Eulers brake power, the following representation is suggested:

=
 + 
 .................................................................................................................................. (31)

The frictional power loss caused by friction with the surrounding fluid can also be divided into two parts: one
resulting from the disk friction and another due to friction at the edge of the rotor:

 =
 + 
 .................................................................................................................................. (32)
The disk friction is assumed to have a viscous contribution and an inertial contribution:

 =


+


.......................................................................................................................... (33)

Vortex generation at the edge of airfoils and blades is a well-known phenomenon. Fluid from high pressure side tends
to move to low pressure side creating dissipating part of the energy received from the blade (White, 2003). In the case of
multi-stage pumps, this effect is also influenced by the intermittency of the alignment between the rotor and diffuser blades.
Such intermittency occurs for any flow rate during two consecutive passages of the rotor blades by the point of alignment. The
dissipation caused by vortex generation can be assumed to increase with the flow rate, rotation speed and viscosity. The
following formulation in terms of viscous and inertial contributions is proposed:


 =
+ 



................................................................................................................................ (34)

Replacing the results expressed in Eq. 31 by Eqs. 19, 32, 33 and 34, it leads to:

=



+


+


+
+ 

Rearranging the above equation:

=

+


+


+



and dividing by

:

or:

=
+



+

+



+ 





............................................ (35)

....................................................... (36)

.............................................................. (37)

=
+
+
+

+


......................................................................................................... (38)

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From the derivation above, the coefficients
are assumed to depend only on the geometry parameters

and are

constant for a given pump. These coefficients are expected to be positive except possibly
. Again, the five coefficients can
be determined from a data regression to fit the experimental brake horsepower-capacity curves.
Experimental results

Single-phase viscous flow

It was performed a numerical regression of Eq.30 to fit the experimental data. For this purpose, the kinematic
viscosity in parameter X was evaluated in centistokes. The resulting coefficients were a0 = 0.223513, a1 = 0, a2 = 0.732976, a3
= 2726.25, a4 = 0 and n = 0, and Fig. 6 shows the results of Eq. 30 compared to the experimental data. Most of the evaluated
points presented errors lower than 10%, showing quite satisfactory agreement with data. Thus, a CH=f(CQ, X) map which is
quadratic in CQ and linear in X provides a good representation of the pump behavior.

Fig. 6 Comparison of adjusted Eq. 30 to experimental data

Fig. 7 shows the full map from the adjusted Eq. 30 extrapolated to the entire range. Note that CH tends to the water
head coefficient when CQ approaches zero. This happens because no flow occurs at this point also known as shut off
condition - and therefore there is no friction loss, so the viscosity has no impact. It can be concluded that fluid viscosity has
little or no influence in the CQ-quadratic nature of Eq. 30; however, viscosity strongly limits the maximum flow rate that the
pump may reach.
Ns
200

300

400

500
600
700
800
900
1000
1100

50

40

30

20

10

0
(water)

Fig. 7 Head-capacity map for the tested pump according to Eq. 30 with fitting coefficients

The same fitting procedure was repeated for the power coefficient equation, represented by Eq. 38, in which the
following constants were obtained through numerical regression to experimental data: b0 =0.000618632, b1 = 0.0000263855,

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b2 = 0.319631, b3=0.00445414 and b4 = - 28.1499. Fig. 8 presents the results obtained compared to the experimental data.
Similar to the previous case, the majority of the points have an error lower than 10%, showing satisfactory agreement.
Fig. 9 shows the efficiency map determined from Eqs. 11, 30 and 38 extended to the full range. The observed
behavior is quite consistent with the expectations for a centrifugal pump.

Fig. 8 Comparison of adjusted Eq. 38 to experimental data

Fig. 9 Efficiency-capacity map according to Eqs. 11, 30 and 38

Two-phase viscous flow

Because of the high viscosity of the liquid, which resulted low flow rates, the first liquid-gas experiments resulted in
laminar flow which favored the coalescence of the bubbles right before the test pump intake. This is due to the parabolic shape
of the velocity profile. The closer to the pipe axis the higher the flow velocity, resulting in a lateral pressure force for a bubble
positioned in the flow field, as represented in Fig. 10. This velocity difference creates a force towards the center of the pipe,
causing all injected bubbles to move towards the center of the tube and merge, forming a larger bubble.
The diameter of the resulting bubble was well above the critical diameter and according to Estevam (2002) this
causes premature surging and gas lock of the pump. Fig. 11 shows a picture of this phenomenon, where it is possible to
visualize the bubbles heading to the center of pipe, the occurrence of coalescence and the larger bubble formed.
Therefore, because of the limitation of the facility to increase the liquid flow rate to reach turbulent flow, it was
necessary to reduce the viscosity of the liquid by adding water to the glycerin, as mentioned earlier.

10

SPE 165028

V1

V1>V2

V2

Resulting
force to the
center

Fig. 1 Influence of the velocity profile on a rising bubble

Resulting bubble after coalescence

Coalescence

Bubbles heading to the

center of the tube

Fig. 11 Bubble coalescence in laminar flow

The first tests with two-phase viscous flow concerned the impact caused by different viscosities and free gas fractions
in the pump head. For these experiments, the rotational speed and liquid flow rate were kept constant and the viscosity was
reduced by increasing the fluid temperature through the electric heater.
Fig. 12 shows the results for dimensionless two-phase head relative to single-phase water head as a function of the
viscosity for different inlet no-slip gas fractions. It is evident that higher viscosities result in higher degradation for the same
gas fraction. For low viscosities, the turbulence increases the bubble breakup rate and consequently the bubbles become
smaller, resulting in better performance of pump. High viscosities results in coalescence and formation of a stationary bubble
at the impellers entrance. This is the reason why the pump tolerated only small inlet gas-fractions ( 1%) without surging.

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11

Fig. 12 Two-phase head ratio relative to single-phase water as a function of viscosity for different gas fractions

The following analysis had the objective to evaluate if the proposed single-phase flow dimensionless groups are also
valid under two-phase flow using mixture properties. For single phase flow and constant rotational speed, the variable X is
linearly dependent on the fluids kinematic viscosity i.e. =
. However, for two-phase flow inside a centrifugal pump
the dependence between the kinematic viscosity and the void fraction is unknown. The reason to expect that the void fraction
effect can be incorporated in the parameter X lies in the fact that, under conditions the pump operates with a homogeneous
mixture of dispersed bubbles, the pump degradation caused by the presence of gas is similar to when operating with a high
viscous fluid, as it was presented in Fig. 12.
To justify this fact, consider first the case when the fluid at the pump intake consists of a swarm of small diameter
bubbles (
<
 ) dispersed throughout the liquid. Using the expression proposed Ishii-Zuber (1979) to represent the
viscosity of a liquid with non-coalescent micro bubbles (with

), the homogeneous two-phase X would be:

..................................................................................................................................................... (39)

...................................................................................................................................... (40)

where is the average void fraction inside the impellers. This expression of satisfies the expectation that an
increase in the void fraction increases the parameter X and degrades the performance of the pump. For a situation of small
bubbles and small void fractions, the phase segregation inside the pump can be neglected and the void fraction assumed to be
equal to the no-slip inlet void fraction (i.e. = ). However, for bubbles larger than the critical size, as in our experiments
with viscous fluids, bubble coalescence and phase segregation inside the pump occur immediately inside the impeller channel.
The intensity of phase segregation is related to the centripetal-gravity acceleration ratio. Thus it can be expected for
deformable bubbles.
The experiments were performed to obtain the specific capacity and specific head for the same specific speeds and
rotational speeds of the single phase flow experiments and different gas fractions. Fig. 13 shows the two-phase (red dots) data
overlapped with single phase (blue dots).

12

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Fig. 13 Two-phase and single-phase dimensionless head-capacity map

To determine how the variable X should be modified to incorporate the free gas effect, Eq. 30 can be written as
presented in Eq. 41, fitted with the coefficients obtained from single-phase flow:

.






.


.


............................................................................................................................ (41)

where the head coefficient CH and capacity coefficient CQ are obtained from Eqs. 6 and 7 considering two-phase flow
data, as presented in Eq. 42 and 43. The inlet no-slip void fraction was used for convenience, i.e.:

=

=

....................................................................................................................................... (42)

.......................................................................................................................................... (43)

Fig. 14 presents the results of the ratio

increases with the increasing inlet void fraction.

, where
=

. It can be clearly seen that the two-phase parameter

Fig. 14 Two-phase parameter X as a function of the inlet no-slip gas fraction

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13

An improved correlation for

is shown in Fig. 15, where an attempt was made to incorporate the effect of the

centripetal force (Fc) relative to the inlet gravity field (Fg), which is believed to cause a gas fraction increase inside the pump.

Fig. 15 Two-phase parameter X as a function of the inlet no-slip gas fraction corrected by the centripetal force

Based on the results of Fig. 15 the following correlation is proposed for two-phase flow with deformable bubbles at
inlet, which coefficients must be obtained experimentally for each pump model:

= 1 +

where

+

........................................................................................................................... (44)

, c1=5.82 and c2=9.79.

CONCLUSIONS
1. It was found that the dimensionless groups proposed by Solano (2009) are able to translate the combined effect of
rotational speed and viscosity, while demonstrating that the Stepanoff correlation is also valid beyond the best
efficiency point.
2. Based on the Solanos proposal, it is possible to obtain a similar operation map using dimensionless numbers already
known from literature.
3. Considering the Eulers equation and theoretical losses in the pump, along with experimental data, it was possible to
obtain quadratic equations that can represent, with good agreement, the head, break horsepower and efficiency of the
pump as a function of the capacity coefficient and the Reynolds number.
4. The presence of laminar flow at the pump intake is extremely detrimental to its performance. This leads to a
coalescence of the bubbles in the center of the pipe, forming a large bubble that causes the phenomenon of gas
locking.
5. For a given gas fraction, higher liquid viscosities result in less turbulence, which results in less bubbles breakups.
Consequently larger bubbles are formed, severely impacting the performance of the pump.
6. It was observed the behavior of the proposed dimensionless groups under the presence of gas. A relationship between
the two-phase experimental data, the liquid data and the gas fraction was identified, allowing to estimate the head
degradation.
Nomenclature
An
b
CH
CP
CQ
d
Fc
Fg
g

Rotor normal area, L2, m2

Channel height, L, m
Head Coefficient
Power Coefficient
Capacity Coefficient
Impeller diameter, L, m
Centripetal force, ML/T2, kg.m/s2
Gravity field, ML/T2, kg.m/s2
Gravity acceleration, L/T2, m/s2

14

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H
k(Li/d)
Li
N
Ns
ns
p
q
q*
r1
r2
rm
Rn
X
Ws
Greek
P
a

References

Pump head, L, m
Function that includes all lengths, areas and area ratios
Geometrical characteristic, L, m
Rotational speed, rpm
Specific Speed
Specific Speed (SI units)
Pressure, M/LT2, Pa
Total flow rate, L3/T, m3/s
Shockless (design) flow rate, L3/T, m3/s
Rotor inlet radius, L, m
Rotor outlet radius, L, m
Mean radius of rotor, L, m
Normalized Reynolds
Inverse of Reynolds number
Break horsepower, ML2/T3, W
Pressure difference, M/LT2, Pa
void fraction
Pump efficiency
Inlet no-slip void fraction
Dynamic viscosity, M/LT, Pa.s
Liquid dynamic viscosity, M/LT, Pa.s
Kinematic viscosity, L2/T, cSt
Density, M/L3, kg/m3
Liquid density, M/L3, kg/m3
Specific Head
Specific Capacity
Angular velocity, rad/s

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